Despite the conventional wisdom that patriotism means "my country -- right or wrong" and is best displayed by blind flag-waving, to many Americans patriotism means loyalty to a set of principles, and thus requires dissent and criticism when those in power violate those standards.

I dreamt of becoming a writer. I found the spot on the library or book store shelf where my book would reside. And yet, somehow, I knew that writing a book wasn't an occupation. At least not a realistic one for me. It was compartmentalized as a dream.

A faithful adaptation of erotica queen Zane's million copy bestseller, the romancer showcases the posteriors of William Levy, Tyson Beckford, and Boris Kodjoe as they try to satisfy Sharon Leal's Zoe, who's suffering from a hardy case of sex addiction that's destroying both her marriage and career.

The Harlem Renaissance period is an era that I wish that I could somehow experience in my life. The allure of it. The thought that if I was a black male and educated in a variety of things that I would be considered a "Renaissance Man."

For all of its virtues and vices, America has always stood as a beacon of hope. Movements such as civil rights, women's suffrage, and gay equality could not have occurred if America did not promote hope and possibility.

Poetry is how we say to the world, and to each other, "I am here." Some of my most beloved poets -- Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Billy Collins and Naomi Shihab Nye -- talk about poetry as a way to document the world and our common experiences, to say what needs to be said in a direct, powerful and beautiful way.

Plucking the dialogue pretty much verbatim from his best-selling book, Steinbeck handily transferred his tale to the stage. Again George and Lennie -- traveling together like the scores of other bindlestiffs scouring California's Salinas Valley (Steinbeck's version of William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County) for work -- arrive at a farm for barley bucking activity.

With Washington's return to The Great White Way in the revival of Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 A Raisin in the Sun at the Barrymore, he does a tremendous favor. Once again, as he did with his limited-runs Julius Caesar and Fences, he brings large audiences--especially African-American audiences--to a theater and to theater in the larger sense.

African American poets gave a glimpse into what W.E.B. Dubois famously identified as 'The Souls of Black Folks.' Our students honored their poetic forbears which was also a manifesto about the importance of poetry in young people's lives.